Canoe man ‘coerced’ his wife

Anne Darwin told police that her husband John, who faked his own death in a canoeing accident only to 'come back to life' five years later, had blackmailed her into silence, Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday. The 56-year-old former doctor's receptionist said she had been desperate to tell her sons that their father was still alive, but that her husband warned her if she spoke out he would implicate her in his £250,000 insurance deception. Mrs Darwin is claiming marital coercion as a defence against the charges she faces.

The court was also read an email Anne Darwin sent to her husband on November 30 last year while he was flying back to the UK. It said: "Hope you had a good flight and everything okay with the family. Don't leave me. Love you, missing you already XXXXXX."